Key recommendations of the report:
1. Health leaders and policy makers should further explore ways to optimize the role of pharmacists to deliver a variety of patient-centered care and disease prevention, in collaboration with physicians or as part of the health care team.
2. Utilization of pharmacists as an essential part of the health care team to prevent and manage disease in collaboration with other clinicians can improve quality, contain costs, and increase access to care.
3. Recognition of pharmacists as health care provider, clinicians and an essential part of the health care team is appropriate given the level of care they provided in many health care settings.
4. Compensation models, reflective of the range of care provided by pharmacists, are needed to sustain these patient oriented, quality improvement services
The report quotes “numerous articles, systematic reviews and meta analyses of positive patient and health system outcomes that have been published in peer reviewed journals that validate this model as evidence-based. According to a recent comprehensive systematic review of 298 research studies, integrating pharmacists into direct patient care results in favorable outcomes across health care settings and disease states. Pharmacists with larger roles in patient care improve outcomes, increase access to care (especially for medically under served and vulnerable populations), shift time for physicians to focus on more critically ill patients in need of physician-based care, improve patient and provider satisfaction, assure patient safety, enhance cost-effectiveness, and clearly advance and improve health care delivery.”
Dr. Benjamin's Recommendation>>>